Subscribe

Sannyas

CARE FOR EARTH

Change your focus from having to being
Posted by OWF Wednesday, January 30, 2019 at 15:53

Q: What do you have that I havent got? (and Iím not talking about the ashram and car and secretary and all that stuff.)

You must be talking about all that stuff. Otherwise why do you mention it at all? The very mentioning of it shows the mind. You must have been afraid; the idea must have crossed your mind.And I dont have any ashram, and I dont have any car, and I dont have any secretary. In fact, I dont have anything. Having is not the thing... being. I am just here. Being is my wealth, not having.If the ashram is here, it is for you not for me. If the secretary is there, it is for you not for me. All that exists here is for you. It does not, it has not, anything to do with me.

I am enough alone.

But somewhere, deep in your mind, you must be too attached to things. When you formulate a question, remember it shows much about you. A question is not only a question, it is very symbolic also.

Several men in the smoking-room were arguing as to who was the greatest inventor. One contended for Stevenson, who invented the railroad, another for Edison, another for Marconi, still another for the Wright brothers. Finally, one of them turned to a small man who had been listening but who had said nothing. What do you think, Mr. Man?

Well, came the reply with a knowing smile, the man who invented "interest" was nobodys fool.

And the Jew is hidden in everybody: the Jew goes on thinking of money, interest, things... having.The first thing: change your focus from having to being. You can have the whole world and it is not going to help; you will remain a beggar. And I am not saying renounce the world, mind you. I am not saying renounce the world. Dont jump to the opposite conclusion. I am saying you can have the whole world and you will not have anything, thats all I am saying. I am not saying renounce it.

Because those who renounce, their mind also remains focused on having. You count money, they also count money. You say I have got this many thousand dollars, they say, I have renounced that many thousand dollars, but the counting continues. You are a book-keeper and they are also bookkeepers. And book-keeping is the world.To know who you are is to become an emperor. To BE is to be an emperor, to HAVE is to be poor.

There are two kinds of poor men in the world: those who have and those who have not. But both are poor because those who have, they have nothing, and those who have not, of course they have not got anything; both are poor. Those who dont have, they are puzzled: What to do with it now? - they are stuck with it. They have wasted their whole life in having it. Now it is there and they dont know what to do with it. It has not satisfied anything, it has not brought any fulfilment, it has not brought any flowering. They have not come to celebrate life yet. God has not happened through it. It never happens through having.

You ask: What do you have that I havent got...?If you insist on speaking in terms of having, then you have got more than I have got. You have got infinitely more: greed, anger, lust, ambition, ego - and a thousand and one things.

What I have got? - just nothing, exactly, just nothing. If you think from the viewpoint of having, then I am the poorest man, because I have got just nothing. But if you think from the viewpoint of being, then I am the richest man. Because once you the ego, you dont lose anything, you only lose a disease. When you greed, you dont lose anything, you only lose a disease. When you anger, you dont lose anything, you gain. Each time you things like this which you have, you become richer.When greed disappears, there comes into existence sharing. When anger disappears, there comes into existence compassion. When hate, jealousy, possessiveness, disappear, there comes into being love.I have got only myself. But that self-expresses itself in many, many dimensions - in sharing, in love, in compassion.

So, I can say you have more, much more. And yet I will say you are not yet. I am, and you are not.